My experience is that the reputable brands have always been pretty good
in terms of how their drives behave when they go out of the door. The
problem comes when there's a problem that doesn't show up for six months
or a year, or some firmware interaction.  

IBM, Seagate, WD have all had problems in this way. IBM sold to Hitachi
soon after their "Deathstar" problems. 

Sorry ;-(

John